Dare Me
by Lizzy322
Summary: A request was one thing, a dare was another. Pidge was never one to turn down a dare. She was quite fine stealing that wallet, hacking that server, pulling that prank, but only if she heard the magic words. "I dare you."


"Dare me?"

Her smile is brilliant, genuine, stretching from ear to ear in a goofy display. The flickering excitement, something Lance could compare to a flame, shows well in her eyes beyond her lenses. With her shoulders hunched, entire body slightly leaning towards the kitchen's door, that typical baggy sweater of hers bunching up against her elbows as she raises her hands up, she looks like a diver prepared to plunge into the race.

And she is ready to conquer.

Lance grins at her from across the doorway, his back pressed against the wall and his arms crossed over his chest as he studies her. He turns his attention to the kitchen, lifting his head to peek inside. The place is pristine as ever, with plates of goop laid out on the counter without so much as a spill. Coran whistles joyfully, moving throughout the room with a cook's grace as he gathers certain ingredients from within the cabinets before moving to a different area to prepare them.

Dinner already looks awful even from the distance. Lance is still bitter that Hunk hadn't received kitchen duty, that the yellow lion was in need of repairs and the yellow paladin was the only person capable of heeding her requests. Coran had immediately declared he'd make a super healthy dinner, with that ever-chipper attitude of his that only annoyed Lance further. Even Shiro looked apprehensive about the incoming horror that awaited them.

"What?" Pidge interrupts the blue paladin's train of thought, her smile growing impossibly wider. "C'mon. Dare me?"

Lance tilts his head, surprised by her eagerness, but at the same time he feels he should've expected it. He lets the moment draw out, lets her shuffle in place and raise an eyebrow, before he gives her a curt nod. "I dare you."

The words are intoxicating, exhilarating, her green light. She brightens, swiveling on her heel and stooping a bit lower before racing into the kitchen the second Coran's back is turned. Silently, she slinks behind the counter as the royal advisor twists about to grab an ingredient before returning to his work.

Pidge grabs each plate of goo, stacking one on top of the other, indifferent to the remnants of green glop spilling onto her shirt. Lance is both stunned and on the verge of laughter as she tiptoes successfully out of the kitchen, all five dishes balanced in her small hands.

Coran turns, and looks immediately startled upon the disappearance of the food. Lance slaps a hand over his mouth, Pidge shovels food goo into hers, just so they could muffle their snickers as Coran turns in confused circles.

"Quiznak!" Coran spits. "Those darn mice..." He gives up, looking entirely perplexed as he wanders out of the kitchen through the alternate door, calling for Allura as he goes.

The tick he is gone, the two paladins burst into uproarious laughter.

* * *

"It's ridiculous. I bet no one could do it."

Keith collapses on the couch beside Hunk, the common room blissfully air-conditioned enough for him to relax some. He looks exhausted, strands of hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, his bayard still clutched in his hand as if his fingers are too stiff to release it.

"Oh, I'm sure someone could beat it," Hunk insists, scribbling away on a notepad and studying some odd mechanical part sitting in his lap. "Allura and Coran wouldn't make...like...impossible Gladiators, would they?"

"That's what it is!" Keith snaps frustratingly, raising his hands in a helpless gesture. "I've tried fighting the damn thing five times now! Even Shiro said it was too much for him."

"Could've said that to make you feel better," Pidge quips from nearby, one hand propping her head, the other tapping away on her laptop at a surprisingly rapid speed.

"Oh, shut up," Keith grumbles, turning his head to the green paladin. "That thing's a beast. I bet even you couldn't beat it."

Her eyes lift to meet his within a second, and Hunk snorts as if the words were Keith's biggest mistake. Carefully, Pidge closes her laptop, and the red paladin feels oddly intimidated by such a casual action.

"Really?" She jumps from her perch on the couch, hands on her hips, the ghost of a smug smile on her face. "How 'bout you tell me to try?"

"Why would I?" Keith immediately looks bemused by the mere idea, raising his hand as if wanting to merely study his bayard. His other hand reaches around to try to pry his numb fingers away from the bayard grip. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"I won't." Pidge almost sounds indignant, her nose wrinkling. "Go ahead. Dare me."

Keith's brow furrows, and Hunk grins from his spot, not even looking up from his notes. The yellow paladin was wise to Pidge's game, and well aware of the fact she never turned down a dare.

"Why would I?" Keith repeats stiffly. His shoulders lift in a helpless shrug, but he can spot the fiery determination in her eyes, that slight edge she has that Lance also seems to possess. The "I've got something up my sleeve, and you don't know" look, and he feels uneasy just at the sight of it on Pidge's little face.

"Alright. Alright, fine, I dare you."

Pidge's face lights up and she grabs her bayard from its place beside her laptop. Soon, she's practically bounding down the hall towards the trainin room. Keith forces himself up to follow and Hunk drops his things to go along.

Pidge proves Keith wrong.

By the end of the fight, she's battered and bruised and panting for breath, but she's victorious. Her blade disappears back into the bayard, her bloody knuckles rubbing against her sweater and leaving red streaks. Keith is stunned, mouth having hung open for the duration of the fight. Pidge only turns her head, raises her eyes towards his, and flashes a devious little smile.

"Oh, she never loses a dare," Hunk informs, drinking slowly from the Altean version of an iced tea. Keith only makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat.

* * *

They were training, flying around the surface of an uninhabited moon to practice different piloting techniques. The geography of the land is odd, stacks of boulders looming around them and acting like a type of difficult obstacle course, which was the exact reason it was chosen. Much of the cliffs are dangerous, but the paladins are careful to avoid the worst of it, and Coran and Allura supervise from their spot on the ship.

"Princess Allura, I highly advise they avoid that area!" Coran's voice flickers through the speakers, as the lions swerve around different rock formations in varying paces. "That outcropping to the east looks like it could collapse at an moment!"

"My paladins could surely handle it," Allura bites back, before Lance practically squeaks over the speaker. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought we were training, not aiming for suicide!"

"Coran's right, Princess," Shiro insists, his lion hovering in the air as he focuses on the conversation. "That outcropping doesn't look safe."

"No battle you will enter will be safe!" Allura declares, even as Coran shakes his head in the background.

"We just don't need anyone unnecessarily injured," Shiro points out evenly, eyeing the unsteady stack of boulders himself. "There's no point in hurting a lion or its paladin if we're not even-"

"Dare me!"

Pidge's voice cuts right through Shiro's, and Hunk and Keith undoubtedly giggle in their own speakers. Shiro freezes as Allura falls silent, shifting her gaze to Coran questioningly. The royal advisor only shrugs.

"Dare..." The princess' voice lilts at the new word. "Is that an Earthling custom?"

"Yup." The smugness in Pidge's voice is thick, and she places a hand on her chest despite no one really watching her. "You dare me to do something, and I gotta do it, no exceptions!"

Lance snorts, then quickly looks away once Shiro's face pops up on the communicator, showing his disapproval.

"Alright." Allura considers, tapping her chin, and Coran raises his eyebrows in curiosity. "Pidge, I dare you to maneuver under that outcropping and slip through the smallest area you can find! We can test your lion's ability to fit small spaces!"

Shiro sounds alarmed almost immediately. "Wait! Allura, no! Pidge, don't you dare-"

But Pidge does it.

They all return to their hangars minutes later after saving the green lion from being ultimately crushed by boulders. Pidge is somewhat victorious, but she's on the floor of her lion, blood streaming from her nose and her elbows scraped from the nasty fall.

Her stubborn smile remains, even as the green lion somehow lets Shiro in, the black paladin picking her up the second he finds her and instantly scolding her as he carries her to the infirmary.

* * *

"Seems kinda dangerous."

Pidge views the Galra ship with intense animosity, her lip curling up into a sneer. "Terrible," she murmurs, turning to the green lion's controls before her. She swipes a hand and pulls up the screen, desperately hoping this could be the right one.

"We've gathered intel," Shiro informs over the helmet speaker. "I'm sorry, Pidge. It's just another cargo ship."

"Dammit." Pidge closes the screen, her eyes prickling with tears, but she fights them back. She's so close. So close to finding her family, but she won't give up yet. She swallows hard to clear her voice before speaking up. "So would it matter if I blew the thing up?"

She can hear the smile in Shiro's voice. "Nope. Go nuts."

Pidge shoves the control forward and the green lion launches from its perch, approaching the ship. Indeed, it's nothing but cargo, such a small vessel compared to the more security-ridden ones the paladins are used to.

But for some reason, as her hands hover over the buttons, she can't bring herself to fire. An alarm sounds, shrill and deafening even from where she is, and she knows she's been spotted.

It's a useless ship. Holding nothing important but maybe weapons and armor that the Galra only use to conquer more lands. She's justified the blow it all up, to possibly save a civilization somewhere, but her hand refuses.

"...dare me," she whispers, knowing it'd be the only thing to spur her on. After a second, she fears she wasn't heard, but then she feels the cabin shift under her feet. Green is intrigued, urging for confirmation.

"Dare me!" Pidge crows, and is delighted by the encouraging roar in response. Instinctively, her hand slams down, the weapon engaged. Green opens her mouth, and a laser beam instantly shoots out and hits the ship dead-on.

It's reduced to rubble moments later.

* * *

The chase is intense, the worst they've ever had.

Pidge feels as if the halls they run through keep repeating, like the two of them are only racing in constant circles. Shiro is breathing hard, one hand hovering over her as if he's prepared to throw himself to her defense if need be.

The chase had been going on for ages. For both, their legs are numbingly pushing them forward, their lungs ache for air. The Galra are right behind them, but the ship they're on is a maze, and the exit can't be found. They have no one to call, the communication cut the minute they'd been found breaching security. Finding an exit was an extremely difficult task, but it was the only choice. Being caught by the Galra meant certain death, the capture of their lions, the end of Voltron.

"C'mon!" Shiro leads her in a sharp corner, and the two of them keep running, spurred on by the hope they could be onto something. Gunshots fire, and Pidge feels a bullet whiz past her ear, making her wince and move closer to Shiro's side. They couldn't get caught. They wouldn't, she refused.

Then they see it.

The escape pod is the safe haven, their miracle, and they propel the last of their energy into approaching it. Pidge laughs aloud, Shiro yells something unintelligible, but the happy moment dies as quickly as it sparked.

The escape pod is only for a single person.

They turn back, intending to trace back and find another way, but the Galra troops turn the corner and trap them. They march ahead with heavy determination, the barrels of their guns staring the paladins in the face, translating to certain death.

Regardless, Pidge takes out her bayard, crosses her arm across her chest and slips into a fighting stance. "Shiro, c'mon!" She hisses. "We gotta fight! We can find another pod!"

"No, we can't, Pidge." Shiro closes his hands into desperate fists, but his arm doesn't activate. His eyes almost glaze over at the sheer number of troops coming in their direction, a wall that can't be broken through. Shiro knows it, and it slowly dawns on Pidge as well.

"What do we do?" She whispers, her voice tinged with panic, and she finds her hand grasping his sleeve with heavy worry. "Shiro? Shiro, we gotta do something! Try calling for back up again."

"The pod." There's a tense silence before he looks down at her. "You'd fit."

"But only I can-" she trails off, her eyes widening, the realization crashing into her like a speeding truck. "Shiro, no. No, I'm not leaving you!"

"Pidge, you have to!" Shiro looks almost pained, as if the words bring back bad memories, and he grips her forearm harshly. "Get in the pod. Tell the others. I'll be okay."

"No!" Pidge tugs at him, bucks against him, but no matter how much she's trained, Shiro's always stronger. He races back to the pod, the gunshots already ringing out behind him. Her heartbeat pounds in her ears, and she can't quite believe what's even happening until she's unceremoniously dumped in the pod.

"Pidge, leave!" Shiro barks out, demanding, and he activates his arm as the troops come closer.

"No, I won't!" Pidge shifts, intending to jump from the pod, to help him fight, and her bayard glows from within her hand. Her anger is enough to justify the tears in her voice. "You can't make me!"

"Pidge, close that door!" Shiro stammers, hesitates, before his eyes narrow and he turns to her. " _I dare you_!"

The words ring in her ears, the meaning behind them resonating in her brain. She stares at him in disbelief, sees the apology in his eyes beyond his masked fear. The Galra are closing in.

She reaches out and shuts the pod door. It seals instantly, blocking Shiro from her view, his scream cut off as she's launched into space. The controls pop up before her, her coordinates flashing bright blue on an illegible map, but everything's blurry with her tears.

He's gone. She's alone. She still can't quite believe what she's done, but it happened, and it's over. Shiro's captured, and he only managed to save her by doing something so small, so beyond their training.

He dared her.

And Pidge never turns down a dare.

* * *

 _"I'm gonna miss you."_

 _Pidge leans her head on her brother's shoulder, the orange fabric on his uniform almost blinding to her. She's grown sick of the color, of the mere fact her brother is leaving to Kerberos without her, and the heavy feeling in her heart only worsens the longer she looks at it._

 _"Hey." Matt pats her back, the motion comforting as she pulls back to look him in the face. His warm smile eases her nerves, and she quirks a grin back. He deserves to be excited. And she knows she oughta be too, but she doesn't know why there's a nagging feeling in her gut telling her it's all a bad idea._

 _"It's gonna be okay, Kate," Matt assures, reaching up to adjust her headband, and she snickers. "Ah, that's easy for you to say!" She declares, matching his goofy smile. "You're gonna be living it up, in that spaceship, making history."_

 _"Oh, one day you will too," Matt says matter-of-factly, waving a hand indifferently in the air as if they were discussing the weather. "I'm older, so obviously I get to go first."_

 _"Jerk," Pidge teases, punching at his arm. He only shrugs, but his smile lingers, and he's got more to say. "But before I go, I wanna dare ya something."_

 _"Oh, really?" Pidge raises an eyebrow, placing her hands on her hips and already expecting to do something outrageous. "What's it gonna be this time? Steal cookies? Or money from Mom's purse so you can look cool in front of your friends when you buy them pizza?"_

 _"That was one time," Matt snorts before swinging an arm around her, pulling her closer. "Nah, not that. I dare you...that once we meet again...you have to hug me."_

 _Pidge snorts very unladylike, but she could care less, folding her arms at the request. "Really? That's it?"_

 _"That's it." Her brother plants a kiss on her forehead, and she feels the blossoming sadness overwhelm her chest again. "That's all I want. Assurance that everything is still alright. You only hug when you're doing okay."_

 _"I can do that." Pidge's voice doesn't waver, but she blinks the tears from her eyes. It's such an easy feat, but the dare feels impossible. But she's not one to turn a dare down. Barely suppressing a smirk, she looks up at him and beams._

 _"...I will."_


End file.
